Culture and rapport promotion in service encounters: protecting the ties that bind

The present study aimed at investigating possible cultural effects on the perceived importance of interactional concerns in service encounters. Individual values were examined to establish an explanatory framework for any effects that might emerge. Hong Kong Chinese and Filipinos participated in the present study by rating the importance of 12 interactional concerns in five hypothetical scenarios involving service provision. “Rapport promotion” was the only consistent factor of interactional concerns to emerge from the five scenarios in each of the two cultural groups. The dimensions of individual values, labeled “Conservation” and “Self-Transcendence” by Schwartz (1992), significantly predicted a respondent’s level of rapport promotion across all scenarios, with self-transcendence partially unpackaging the cultural difference that emerged in one of the service scenarios. We use these results to support a model of communication in service provision that predicts communication concerns as arising from cultural socialization for personal characteristics and situational features of the encounter, leading to the petitioner’s being more dependent on the good will of the service provider

Am I Doing Better Than You? That Depends on Whether You Ask Me in English or Chinese: Self-Enhancement Effects of Language as a Cultural Mindset Prime

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89907/1/lee__oyserman__bond__2010.pd

Universalities and Idiosyncrasies in Self-Concept: East-West and North-South

Se agradece el apoyo otorgado por la Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico (DGAPA) a través del Programa de Apoyos para la Superación del Personal Académico (PASPA) de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México para la realización de este manuscritoEl autoconcepto es un constructo crucial en el estudio de los seres humanos desde la antigüedad. Diferentes autores han propuesto definiciones y acercamientos al estudio del self, así como muchos instrumentos para medir este constructo en sus diversas aproximaciones (social, académico, entre otros). Sin embargo, existe una gran problemática, la cual se asocia a el uso que tienen los instrumentos sin considerar la realidad cultural para la cual se utiliza, es decir, al describir a las personas de una cultura cuando las hemos evaluado con instrumentos desarrollado en una cultura diferente. Por lo tanto, es necesario desarrollar la discusión respecto de cuestiones universales como específicas de cada cultura en relación al autoconcepto. El propósito del presente artículo es realizar esta discusión en relación a comparar los aspectos cognitivos, emocionales y motivaciones del autoconcepto en diferentes países del este-oeste y norte sur desde una perspectiva psico-sociocultural, los países considerados son: México, Perú, Japón, China, Estados Unidos y Chile. Para ello se incluyen descripciones y comparaciones basadas en los síndromes culturales planteados por Hofstade así como una revisión de los instrumentos que se han utilizado para medir este constructo. La discusión se centra en la importancia de considerar la cultura en el estudio del autoconcepto, haciendo énfasis en las herramientas metodológicas que se derivan de las orientaciones teóricas propuestas y de las atenciones que se deben tener a la hora de realizar comparaciones transculturales, ya sea entre países e incluso dentro de un mismo país. Esto quiere decir, que no se debe olvidar los aspectos compartidos por las culturales en relación al self (etic), pero sin caer en el olvido de los aspectos particulares (emic) o idiosincrático, que son los que finalmente le dan las particularidades al autoconcepto

White Dwarfs in Globular Clusters: HST Observations of M4

Using WFPC2 on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have isolated a sample of 258 white dwarfs (WDs) in the Galactic globular cluster M4. Fields at three radial distances from the cluster center were observed and sizeable WD populations were found in all three. The location of these WDs in the color-magnitude diagram, their mean mass of 0.51($\pm 0.03$)M$_{\odot}$, and their luminosity function confirm basic tenets of stellar evolution theory and support the results from current WD cooling theory. The WDs are used to extend the cluster main-sequence mass function upward to stars that have already completed their nuclear evolution. The WD/red dwarf binary frequency in M4 is investigated and found to be at most a few percent of all the main-sequence stars. The most ancient WDs found are about 9 Gyr old, a level which is set solely by the photometric limits of our data. Even though this is less than the age of M4, we discuss how these cooling WDs can eventually be used to check the turnoff ages of globular clusters and hence constrain the age of the Universe.Comment: 46 pages, latex, no figures included, figures available at ftp://ftp.astro.ubc.ca/pub/richer/wdfig.uu size 2.7Mb. To be published in the Astrophysical Journa

Cataclysmic Variables from SDSS II. The Second Year

The first full year of operation following the commissioning year of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has revealed a wide variety of newly discovered cataclysmic variables. We show the SDSS spectra of forty-two cataclysmic variables observed in 2002, of which thirty-five are new classifications, four are known dwarf novae (CT Hya, RZ Leo, T Leo and BZ UMa), one is a known CV identified from a previous quasar survey (Aqr1) and two are known ROSAT or FIRST discovered CVs (RX J09445+0357, FIRST J102347.6+003841). The SDSS positions, colors and spectra of all forty-two systems are presented. In addition, the results of follow-up studies of several of these objects identify the orbital periods, velocity curves and polarization that provide the system geometry and accretion properties. While most of the SDSS discovered systems are faint (>18th mag) with low accretion rates (as implied from their spectral characteristics), there are also a few bright objects which may have escaped previous surveys due to changes in the mass transfer rate.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 126, Sep. 2003, 44 pages, 25 figures (now with adjacent captions), AASTeX v5.

SDSS Standard Star Catalog for Stripe 82: the Dawn of Industrial 1% Optical Photometry

We describe a standard star catalog constructed using multiple SDSS photometric observations (at least four per band, with a median of ten) in the $ugriz$ system. The catalog includes 1.01 million non-variable unresolved objects from the equatorial stripe 82 ($|\delta_{J2000}|<$ 1.266$^\circ$) in the RA range 20h 34m to 4h 00m, and with the corresponding $r$ band (approximately Johnson V band) magnitudes in the range 14--22. The distributions of measurements for individual sources demonstrate that the photometric pipeline correctly estimates random photometric errors, which are below 0.01 mag for stars brighter than (19.5, 20.5, 20.5, 20, 18.5) in $ugriz$, respectively (about twice as good as for individual SDSS runs). Several independent tests of the internal consistency suggest that the spatial variation of photometric zeropoints is not larger than $\sim$0.01 mag (rms). In addition to being the largest available dataset with optical photometry internally consistent at the $\sim$1% level, this catalog provides practical definition of the SDSS photometric system. Using this catalog, we show that photometric zeropoints for SDSS observing runs can be calibrated within nominal uncertainty of 2% even for data obtained through 1 mag thick clouds, and demonstrate the existence of He and H white dwarf sequences using photometric data alone. Based on the properties of this catalog, we conclude that upcoming large-scale optical surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will be capable of delivering robust 1% photometry for billions of sources.Comment: 63 pages, 24 figures, submitted to AJ, version with correct figures and catalog available from http://www.astro.washington.edu/ivezic/sdss/catalogs/stripe82.htm

Developing a patient-centred tool for pain measurement and evaluation in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND: Pain affects 60% of the autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) population. Despite being an early and debilitating symptom, it is poorly characterized and management is suboptimal. This study aimed to develop an ADPKD-specific pain assessment tool (APAT) to facilitate pain research. METHODS: Following a systematic review of PATs used in ADPKD studies and against international recommendations for pain trials, our multi-disciplinary team of clinical experts and patients constructed an ADPKD-pain conceptual framework of key pain evaluation themes. We compiled a new APAT covering domains prioritized within our framework using components of questionnaires validated in other chronic pain disorders. The APAT was administered longitudinally within a randomized high-water intake trial (NCT02933268) to ascertain feasibility and provide pilot data on ADPKD pain. RESULTS: Thirty-nine ADPKD participants with chronic kidney disease Stages 1-4 provided 129 APAT responses. Each participant completed a median of 3 (range 1-10) assessments. Respondents' mean ± standard deviation age was 47 ± 13 years; 59% (23) were female; and 69% (27) had enlarged kidneys with median time from diagnosis 14.2 (interquartile range 7.0-25.9) years. Pain (52%) and associated analgesic use (29%) were common. Pain severity was associated with increasing age [odds ratio (OR) = 1.07, P = 0.009], female gender (OR = 4.34, P = 0.018), estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (OR = 5.45, P = 0.021) and hypertension (OR = 12.11, P = 0.007), but not with kidney size (P = 0.23). The APAT achieved good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.91) and test-retest reliability (domain intra-class correlation coefficients ranging from 0.62 to 0.90). CONCLUSIONS: The APAT demonstrated good acceptability and reliability, and following further validation in a larger cohort could represent an invaluable tool for future ADPKD pain studies.Addenbrookes Charitable Trust Kidney Care UK British Renal Society Kidney Research U

Large-scale shock-ionized and photo-ionized gas in M83: the impact of star formation

We investigate the ionization structure of the nebular gas in M83 using the line diagnostic diagram, [O III](5007 \degA)/H{\beta} vs. [S II](6716 \deg A+6731 \deg A)/H{\alpha} with the newly available narrowband images from the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We produce the diagnostic diagram on a pixel-by-pixel (0.2" x 0.2") basis and compare it with several photo- and shock-ionization models. For the photo-ionized gas, we observe a gradual increase of the log([O III]/H{\beta}) ratios from the center to the spiral arm, consistent with the metallicity gradient, as the H II regions go from super solar abundance to roughly solar abundance from the center out. Using the diagnostic diagram, we separate the photo-ionized from the shock-ionized component of the gas. We find that the shock-ionized H{\alpha} emission ranges from ~2% to about 15-33% of the total, depending on the separation criteria used. An interesting feature in the diagnostic diagram is an horizontal distribution around log([O III]/H{\beta}) ~ 0. This feature is well fit by a shock-ionization model with 2.0 Z\odot metallicity and shock velocities in the range of 250 km/s to 350 km/s. A low velocity shock component, < 200 km/s, is also detected, and is spatially located at the boundary between the outer ring and the spiral arm. The low velocity shock component can be due to : 1) supernova remnants located nearby, 2) dynamical interaction between the outer ring and the spiral arm, 3) abnormal line ratios from extreme local dust extinction. The current data do not enable us to distinguish among those three possible interpretations. Our main conclusion is that, even at the HST resolution, the shocked gas represents a small fraction of the total ionized gas emission at less than 33% of the total. However, it accounts for virtually all of the mechanical energy produced by the central starburst in M83.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. aastex preprint 12pt, 21 pages, 13 figure

Liquid-Crystal-Based Controllable Attenuators Operating in the 1-4 Terahertz Band

Liquid-crystal devices (LCDs) offer a potential route toward adaptive optical components for use in the < 2 THz band of the electromagnetic spectrum. We demonstrate LCDs using a commercially available material (E7), with unbiased birefringence values of 0.14-0.18 in the 0.3-4 THz band. We exploit the linear dichroism of the material to modulate the emission from a 3.4-THz quantum cascade laser by up to 40%, dependent upon both the liquid-crystal layer thickness and the bias voltage applied.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure